Japanese Patent Publication No. 2946323 proposed by the present applicant discloses a known needle body having a tip end a hook and a slider, in which the needle body and slider have relative displacement to allow the hook to be closed and opened.
This composite needle has a slider formed by superimposing two blades. The blades have a thickness that is thinner than a groove width of a blade storage groove provided in the needle body. This provides a gap between the blades and the groove so that the blades are supported so as to freely advance and recede in the groove.
In a knitting machine having a composite needle of such a structure, the two blades at a slider tip end make contact with a side face part of a hook tip end of the needle body to advance so that the blades are branched left and right. The two blades advancing beyond the hook have therebetween a space into which a knitting needle of an opposing needle bed is allowed to enter, thereby performing a transferring stitch.
The above-described structure in which the slider advances to allow the two blades to be branched left and right tends to cause the two blades to have therebetween adhesion and accumulation of dust such as lint particles. Such adhesion and accumulation of dust between the two blades causes the slider to have an increased sliding resistance or causes the blade to become deformed.
Such an increased sliding resistance of the slider or deformation of the blade causes the needle to malfunction, thus preventing an accurate knitting operation. Such an increased sliding resistance of the slider or deformation of the blade also causes a fear in which a control butt of a needle and a cam for driving the needle cause abrasion and breakage or burn out.
Such problems cause additional problems such as reduced productivity or reduced quality of a knit.
The present invention has been proposed in view of the above-described problems. It is an object of the present invention to provide a composite needle that can prevent dust or the like from being adhered to and accumulated between the blades to prevent the problems as described above from occurring.